In order to check the quality of service provided to customers, it is common practice for telephone companies to selectively monitor service aspects of calls placed through their equipment. Service observing systems have been designed in which a trained service observer may determine the quality of service by electrically monitoring various conditions during a call. In addition, many automatic service observing systems are available which can electrically monitor quantities such as the time for dial tone to be connected, the electrical characteristics of numbers dialed by the customer, and the various time intervals involved in the switching connection of the call. However, certain factors such as the quality of operator assistance provided to the customer can still be best monitored by the use of trained service personnel.
In order to make efficient use of service personnel, many systems have been developed which allow service personnel located in one area to monitor call conditions over a wide geographical area. For example, one system allows a service observer to dial a connection to a remotely located service observing unit over ordinary telephone lines. After the connection to the service observing unit is complete, the observer dials a further number which directs a selector switch located at the remote location to connect to telephone equipment associated with the unit for monitoring. Another system records call information on magnetic tape at a remote unit, and the tape is later sent to a central location for evaluation. In yet another type of system, trained evaluation personnel are located at a central position. Each evaluator can be connected via distributing switches to any of a plurality of register-senders. Each of the register-senders in turn communicates with a remote allotter circuit that can select one of a plurality of associated service observing lines. In operation, an idle evaluator is connected to an idle register-sender by the distribution circuitry. When the register-sender is connected, it activates a dedicated allotter unit which thereupon selects telephone equipment for observation.
In all of the above systems, however, no apparatus is provided for discriminating among signals incoming to the central location, thus all data which is generated by the remote service observing circuits is accepted for evaluation. In some situations, particularly in a large centralized service observing system, it is convenient if the central location can selectively accept service observing information from the remote circuits. For example, it has been recognized that certain types of observing equipment are slower in providing observation information than other types. Illustratively, cordboard observation circuits provide less observation data than dial observation circuits during an observation day. From an administrative point of view, it is advantageous to be able to set quotas for data from each observation circuit. If this is possible, a more accurate service picture can be developed since repeated observations from more active circuits may be ignored in favor of information from less active circuits. In some of the prior art systems described above, circuitry has been provided to reduce the number of incoming observations by dividing the observing circuits into groups. Service observing circuits connected to a remote allotter circuit may be wired in two arbitrary groups to the allotter circuit. Control can be provided at the central location so that service observations may be accepted from either or both groups. This arrangement, which has traditionally been called "loop reduction", provides some control over incoming observations; but it still suffers from the drawback that the service observing circuits must be hard-wired into the observing groups, and thus it is not possible to easily change the status of a circuit relative to its group without wiring changes.
It is therefore a problem in the prior art that no method and circuitry have been provided for dynamically controlling incoming service observations in a service observing system having a plurality of remote observation terminals.